The Rest of Babylon
by Kate McCaye
Summary: Some fillinthegap scenes from Babylon what Jack and Sam were up to. SJ. Gen. spoilers for 9, specific for Babylon.


Title: The Rest of Babylon

Author: Kate McCaye

Rating: K+

Summary: Fill-in-the-gap scenes from Babylon - what Jack and Sam were up to. S/J.

Spoilers: Big Babylon spoilers, general Season 9, I suppose.

A/N: Yes, it's me again. No babies yet, of course, but there were so many lovely reviews and warm wishes at the end of my last posting (Compromising Positions) that I wanted to answer a few of the questions asked. First off, I forget who mentioned it but yes, Carter's lab does have a sliding door, and it is controlled via a remote (at least in Urgo it was.) Anyway, when I found myself writing this story in my head WHILE watching 'Babylon,' whereas usually I try to at least wait until an episode ends... I decided to jot it down as an excuse to let you all know that I'll be happy to get news of the babies posted on my profile, and I'll also be happy to e-mail anybody who'd like a sooner update than that, just e-mail me from your private address so I've got it and I'll let you all know when they arrive.

In the meantime... I admit I am guilty of filling in the S/J blanks with my own scenarios this year, as I suppose many people are. I haven't been reading much fanfic lately but from the summaries I see there are already a lot of those out there, so I've avoided polishing them up and posting them. This thing that occurred to me during 'Babylon' seemed slightly less obvious, so maybe I'll be the first one to write a version of this one.

Does anybody else think the SG-1 writers have watched too much X-Files? I mean, I always thought that but now it's worse than ever, as they've basically done the same thing with Jack and Sam that they did with Mulder and Scully... I guess it inspires a lot of fanfic but it still irritates me. Mini-rant over.

Once again, thank you all. On with the story, which is unabashedly full of ship but safe for anybody to read. It assumes that all those little hints they've been dropping mean exactly what we want them to mean. If that's true, then it doesn't contradict anything we've been told so far.

The Rest of Babylon

_Stargate Command_

General Landry stood at attention, waiting for Lt. Colonel Carter to come through the Stargate. He had read enough of her file and worked with her long enough now to know that if he wasn't waiting for her, she'd just find him ASAP anyway - even before handing over her weapon and changing out of her field gear.

Sure enough, as soon as she stepped through the Gate, she started speaking. Her boots made loud clunking sounds on the metal ramp, but she was certainly speaking loudly enough to cover the sounds. "Sir, with all due respect, why did you recall me from the search for Mitchell?" she demanded. "We need all the people we can get out there looking for him, and there's nothing for me to do here to help. We don't leave our people behind, General, and I'm sure the Pentagon will support…"

General Landry held up his hand for silence. Remarkably, she stopped talking abruptly, and stopped moving as well, standing in front of him with her arm resting casually on her P90. That was the best difference between his daughter and Carter - Carter was bound by military protocol to listen to him.

"I'm sending two more SG teams in your place, Colonel Carter, and despite the fact that I'm certain reports of you being irreplaceable are completely true, I trust that in this circumstance you'll agree it's a more than fair trade."

"Yes, sir." She straightened up to attention now, which amused Landry, as it was one almost-rant too late.

"Besides, Jackson and Teal'c are here. I'm sure you can appreciate the increased efficiency of whole teams working together in the field. You're an anomaly to an effective search party at this point. Go get cleaned up, report to the infirmary, and then let Teal'c and Dr. Jackson catch you up on our lack of progress with the prisoner. From here on out you're in charge of all the data we receive from Prometheus. Will there be anything else, Colonel?"

"No, sir."

"Dismissed."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

_The Pentagon_

Major General Jack O'Neill was just as bored in this meeting as Brigadier General Jack O'Neill had been all last year, and perhaps even more bored than Colonel O'Neill had ever been. At least when he was Colonel O'Neill he almost always had something pretty to look at during those boring meetings.

He wasn't even sure what this one was about… he had stopped paying attention when the incredibly pale accountants had started arguing about the toilet paper supply being sent to Atlantis.

He sat up straight in his chair when the door opened unexpectedly and some Sergeant in a jumpsuit (who was nowhere near as good as Walter, but they wouldn't let him bring Walter to DC with him) entered and looked around the room quickly.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"We got a message from Stargate Command, sir. SG-1's leader is missing."

Jack froze for a moment. Or maybe it was longer. He hoped not, because he was pretty sure his heart wasn't beating for the duration of time he remained frozen. Then he snapped out of it and, without a word, got to his feet and ran out of the meeting.

It was the first time he made it through the maze that was the Pentagon without getting lost at least once. Normally that would have been cause for celebration. Today he didn't even notice it. What he did notice, as he ran to his car, was that he was already out of breath. Damn desk job getting him all out of shape… his knees were already screaming at him too.

He got into his car and was for the first time not freaked out by the fact that it started by itself. Okay, not by itself. The key was in his pocket, so… well, it worked. It was scary, under normal circumstances. But kind of cool. He still couldn't believe he was driving a _car, _but his huge truck didn't exactly fit in on the crowded streets of DC. Not to mention the amount of gas it gulped down stuck in traffic.

All those things made sense when Sam explained them to him in the dealership lot. He still missed his truck. It was in Colorado Springs with the rest of his life. At least the part that wasn't lost off-world somewhere.

He swore loudly as he cut off a bunch of people peeling out of the parking lot. He sped to his apartment, a recent conversation repeating over and over in his head.

"_It's nothing to worry about. We're taking two teams, us and SG-22, and it's a planet of trees. Maybe some free Jaffa allies Teal'c's heard about. That's all."_

"And how many of our 'nothing to worry about' missions over the years ended in gunfire, injuries, being held prisoner, death…"

"_We're all still here. Everything's going to be fine, Jack." _

"You'd better be right."

"_When am I not right?" she asked, a light tease in her voice. _

He sighed into the phone. "All right, good point. Be careful, Sam."

"_Always."_

The conversation looped through his brain as he stopped in front of his building. He threw the keys to the doorman, who was yelling at him that he couldn't park there. Jack skidded to a stop in front of the elevator and punched the button hard. He danced on his feet for two seconds, then gave up and headed for the stairwell.

Racing up more flights of stairs than he had counted on, he realized as he ran to the door of his apartment that he had given his keys to his doorman. Swearing loudly, he was about to kick the door down when the elevator dinged and the doorman appeared. "Sir, you might need…" he started, holding up the keys.

"Throw 'em," Jack called. The doorman threw them down the hall to him. He caught them, fumbled for the proper key, and let himself in hastily, calling, "Thanks!" over his shoulder as he hurried inside.

He slammed the door shut, locked it, and ran to the bedroom, hurrying over to the wall safe. Tossing the picture that covered it aside, he barely recognized the fact that the glass shattered. He spun the combination lock impatiently, squinting at the tiny numbers, cursing his increasing short-sightedness, and cursing her for insisting they lock the damn thing up. Nobody would know what it was…

He finally got the safe open and pulled out the little red stone thing Thor had given them. It was the same thing on Kattal, in the monolith thing that took you to the Hall of Wisdom or whatever… just without the big stone monument around it.

He put it flat in his palm and waved his other hand over it. In a second, an Asgard beam swept over him, and a second later he was in his bedroom in Colorado. The relocation company that had bought his house from him had been more than a little confused when he'd called them back a month later wanting it back. Luckily they hadn't sold it already. He looked around the room once. The unmade bed and clothes strewn about would normally have made him laugh - she was so messy when she thought nobody was around. Today they just made him want to cry.

Then he realized the truck was probably at the base. He pulled his cell phone out to call for a cab but didn't need to - it was in the driveway. He'd find out why later, right now he was just grateful for small miracles. He jumped in and broke every traffic law he could think of and several that he couldn't on his way to the base.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

_Stargate Command_

"Daniel, what if you try telling him about how you ascended… then descended, and almost ascended again… I mean, maybe if he learned you could do it without help… and the difference between ancients like Oma and ones like the Ori…" Sam tried after Daniel and Teal'c had caught her up on what she'd missed.

"You haven't seen this guy, Sam, it's worse than when Teal'c was brainwashed by Apophis," Daniel said. Sam and Daniel turned to Teal'c, and Daniel mumbled, "Sorry."

Teal'c nodded, his eyebrow raised. He did not like to be reminded of that 'blunder,' as O'Neill called it.

"Have you made any progress on the markings, Daniel Jackson?"

"No, unfortunately. I have no idea what anything on that thing means besides the one random sentence in Ancient, and even if I did…"

They heard dress shoes running down the hall a split second before a familiar voice that hadn't been heard in these halls in months started barking, "Daniel, what happened and what the hell is being done to get her…"

Jack entered looking about a second away from a heart attack. He'd started talking before they could see him, and he stopped in the doorway, mouth open in shock. All three of them, looking equally as shocked, stared at him. He just stared at Sam. After several long moments, he said, "I… I thought you were…"

Suddenly understanding what must have happened, she shook her head and started to say something, but it was squeezed out of her by the sudden force of the hug she found herself wrapped up in, and realized belatedly that they'd both been moving towards each other. She hugged him back, absently realizing that all the sharp bits on his dress uniform (and there were a lot of them, he was highly decorated) were probably going to leave marks on her, even through her tee-shirt.

He gradually realized he was probably squeezing her too tight and tried to relax, running a hand over her back and arms just-shy of desperately, the other at the back of her hair. She scratched the nape of his neck slowly but didn't start explaining yet, still alarmed at how fast his heart was beating.

The phone rang. Daniel snatched it up and quietly said, "Daniel Jackson… yeah, he's here. Everything's okay. Yes, sir." He hung up, waited a few moments, and cleared his throat. "That was General Landry… he just got a call from the Pentagon… they wanted to know where you were, Jack. They guessed you might have come here, or at least contacted us…"

Daniel's voice often made him sleepy. Today it had the opposite effect. It sort of roused him out of the relieved-into-melting blob of a General he had become and he lifted his head from where he'd buried it into her shoulder, kissing her shoulder, then moving to her neck. By the time he got up to her cheek she was the one starting to melt.

"Oh brother," Daniel muttered, averting his eyes as they went from nice, G-rated hugs to a sudden rush of fast, desperate, not so G-rated kisses that he definitely did not want to imagine, much less witness. Yeah, he was happy for them and all but he still didn't want to look at it all the time… it was like catching your sister making out on the couch while she was supposed to be babysitting you, or something. "I'm gonna go get some coffee," he said, although he doubted Jack or Sam heard or cared, and there was a half-full pot of coffee in the corner.

Teal'c said, "I will accompany you," and followed him out of the lab, even though Teal'c didn't drink coffee.

Sam knew, even though she wasn't aware of too many things other than Jack at the moment, that they definitely should not be doing this here, now, on the base, in Daniel's lab. But she recognized the barely-restrained relief and absurd need to laugh and cry at the same time that she could feel from Jack, like it was seeping through his skin into hers. She'd felt it more times than she would have liked - the close call feeling. Like a punch to the gut, being doused in ice water, and having your head filled with helium at once… plus about a million other things that you couldn't really put a name to.

She'd felt it every time they got lucky when it looked like one of them wasn't coming back - from a planet or an injury. She'd felt it more when it had been Jack, even though she wasn't supposed to. And every time it had turned out okay, she'd wanted to latch onto him and not let go. So she couldn't begrudge him this now - he was probably doing exactly what she was doing, reliving other actual, real close calls when they hadn't been able to do anything other than look at each other and maybe smile when the scare was over.

He started talking in between the frantic kisses that were mostly meeting her open mouth but occasionally landing elsewhere. "I was… in a meeting… about toilet paper… or something… and they said you… were missing… I panicked… don't even know… how I got here… the truck was at the house… I thought you were…"

"I'm… fine… but you're probably in… a lot of trouble."

He shrugged and hugged her again, his face going back into her neck. She kissed the side of his head and tried to catch her breath, her fingers still raking through the short, spiky silver hairs at the back of his head.

"Umm, guys is it safe to come in?" Daniel called loudly from just outside the door.

Sam laughed suddenly, everything catching up with her. Plus she was exhausted. "Yeah, sorry, Daniel," she called, hugging Jack tightly before putting a little space between them. Not much - they still actually had both their arms around each other when Daniel and Teal'c came back in, but they angled their bodies outwards a bit so they could both look at their friends, and Daniel and Teal'c only looked mildly uncomfortable when they slunk back into the room.

Now that the flood of relief had slowed down a bit and he was positive she was there and seemed perfectly fine, Jack was understandably confused. Fiddling with her hair, which was straight again all of a sudden, he asked, "So… nothing was ever wrong with you? You weren't missing or…"

"Not for a minute. None of us have a scratch, Jack," she assured him.

"What exactly did the message you got say?" Daniel asked.

"The leader of SG-1 was missing off-world…"

"You put Mitchell in command," Sam reminded him. "He's the leader of SG-1 now."

"But… I mean I assumed when you came back you'd be back in charge of it. I mean… it's _yours… _he's new…"

Sam shrugged. "We're the same rank, so it's not _exactly_ like he's in charge… actually, Teal'c seems to be in charge more than any of the rest of us these days. It's just a technicality."

"But…"

"Jack. You promised him when he recovered he could have any posting he wanted. He chose SG-1. Do you really want to take that away from him when he helped convince me to come back in the first place?" Sam asked reasonably.

"But… he wanted to work _for _you on SG-1 in the first place, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind…"

"You appear to be the only one concerned with the title, O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted. "I assure you he defers to all of us when it is appropriate. Colonel Carter spoke the truth. While we technically have a leader, no one person is really in charge anymore. Much has changed in your absence, O'Neill."

"Apparently. I guess I missed a few memos."

Sam smiled warmly and squeezed his arm. Lots of things had changed over the past few years. Jack was just about the only thing that hadn't. "And apparently the ones you _are_ getting aren't sufficiently detailed," she added.

"Whoever took that message, or sent it or whatever, should really be spoken to," Daniel put in.

"Ya think?" Jack and Sam both said at the same time. Daniel rolled his eyes.

"So… Mitchell's missing then?" Jack asked, breaking up the temporary levity.

"Yeah," Sam told him grimly. "We're looking for him every way we can, but so far…"

"You'll find him," Jack said, suddenly optimistic. Sam had proven over and over that she could find anybody just about anywhere. It was when she was the one that was lost that things got really scary - she always ended up having to find her own way home.

General Landry entered, and Daniel was surprised when neither Jack nor Sam moved away from each other. True, Jack and Landry were the same rank, but still…

Jack cleared his throat and said casually, "Hey, Hank, how's it going? Just thought I'd stop by and see how the search for Mitchell is going."

"Right, Jack," Landry said. When he'd spoken to the Pentagon, it hadn't been too hard to figure out which Lt. Colonel on SG-1 Jack had assumed was missing. "The Air Force Chief of Staff is waiting in your office… at the Pentagon… wondering why you aren't there for your meeting with him."

"Oops?" Jack offered when three sets of eyes turned to look at him reproachfully.

"I told him you'd be back within the hour," Landry said. "He's taking a long lunch. I think under the circumstances, that's a very generous amount of time. Colonel Carter, you've got a briefing in an hour that I expect you to attend."

"Yes, sir."

He left them, and Sam looked at Jack with obvious regret. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, okay," he mumbled, letting go of her reluctantly. He glanced at Daniel and Teal'c and said, "Later, boys."

Daniel resisted the urge to call 'good luck' as Sam grabbed his hand and led him out of the lab.

She let them into her quarters and shut the door behind them. "You ran out of a meeting," she stated finally, after they looked at each other for what seemed like a long time.

"Not an important one," he defended. "Look, it was bad enough last year being on base and watching you guys go off… now I'm all alone all the way across the country, getting emotionless reports like it's not even real people they're talking about…"

"We'll find out who relayed the message and make sure nothing like that happens again," she promised, suspecting that Teal'c and Daniel were already taking care of that.

"That's not it… look. I panicked. I have no excuse. I would have done the same thing if it was Daniel or Teal'c. You know that. Okay, I might not have run quite so fast and it _maybe _would have occurred to me to try calling first, but…"

"Jack, it's okay, I'm not… I would have done the same… I love that you came running, it's touching, really, but… it's just something that you've got to learn not to do."

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not a fast learner though."

"You can be," she said mildly. "You have to be. Look. If there's a real emergency, nobody expects you to sit on your hands in Washington doing nothing. But…"

"I know," he said simply. "I'll work on it, I swear."

"Okay."

"I'm not gonna be able to do this forever though," he warned.

She nodded. Neither was she. "I know. I'm not happy about it either, but these Ori… they're… bad."

"Yeah, that's the word in Washington too."

"I just couldn't stay at R&D after…"

"I know."

They smiled a bit sadly. They'd been over all that before, they didn't need to go over it again.

"Done?" he asked.

She smiled, the first really full smile since he 'dropped in,' "Yup. You know, I think General Landry expected us to use up most of that hour arguing."

"Yeah. Hank doesn't know you very well yet."

"I think maybe he just only knows us separately," Sam commented thoughtfully, glancing at her watch. Lots of time left. Her phone rang. Swearing under her breath, she answered it with a terse, "Carter."

Jack glanced at the door to make sure it was locked and took a moment to realize that not only had the fear of his worst nightmare coming true been proven unnecessary (today at least), but if he was reading her right (and he always did unless she was trying really hard to mess with him), he was also about to have one of his wildest fantasies fulfilled. On base, in her quarters… technically he supposed they were both even still on-duty. Okay, so she was the one called "Colonel" now and he was in his dress blues, for the time being at least… but still, better late than never, right?

He moved over to her stealthily - it would have been impossible to sneak up on her, of course, he just didn't want whoever was on the other end of the phone to be able to hear him. He caught the alarmed look in her eyes and changed his tactic, settling for grabbing her hand again. He played with it while she talked, casting him amused and (yes!) increasingly aroused glances.

"So, the device can be powered up then?" she said into the phone. "Okay… I can't right now… after my briefing… if you're that impatient put Dr. Lee on it, he's more than qualified and I'm sure he's eager… good. I'll be by later to see how it's going." She hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I missed those guys when I was at Area 51," she commented as he wrapped his arms around her again.

"How's Cassie?"

"She's okay. Doing a lot better since we came back here," she assured him, leaning into him slightly and loosening his tie.

"Good. I wish I had time to see her this time." He gave up the little battle he'd been having with his hands since she picked up the phone and gave them the go-ahead to wander wherever they wanted.

"She'll understand," Sam promised.

"How come the truck was at home?"

"Daniel and Teal'c spent the night before the mission. Teal'c and Cassie watched all the Lord of the Rings movies. Anyway, Daniel drove us in the next day. Actually Teal'c did, but in Daniel's car."

"I see."

"Done with the small talk thing?"

Jack smiled, trying very hard not to grin uncontrollably and start ripping the rest of his clothes off. He settled for saying, "Yup."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Daniel glanced at the clock for the thirtieth time, catching Teal'c's amused glance as they went back to work. "You don't think they're…" Daniel started. "I mean... I understand they don't get to see each other as much as they'd like to but this isn't exactly an appropriate time to..."

"I prefer not to speculate on such matters," Teal'c replied.

"So that's a big fat 'yes,'" Daniel said under his breath. The phone rang again. "Daniel Jackson…" He listened for a moment. "Oh God, is he going to be okay? No… we'll let her know… yeah… we'll come visit him when he wakes up." He hung up the phone and explained to Teal'c. "Dr. Lee gave himself a really nasty shock examining that thing. He's stable but not happy."

"That is unfortunate," Teal'c agreed.

Daniel nodded and turned to the door as Jack entered, looking much less like he wanted to kill somebody than the last time he had entered Daniel's lab. "Hey, Jack. Where's Sam."

"Briefing. I'm on my way back to DC, I just wanted to say bye to you guys. I'll see you next weekend, if everything's back to normal around here of course. And… keep up the good work. I'm sure you'll find Mitchell. He's a tough kid." Jack spoke faster than usual and couldn't seem to look Daniel squarely in the face.

"Yeah. Thanks, Jack."

"It has been good to see you, O'Neill. But it is not good for either of your reputations for you to overreact as you have done. I assure you that were there a real emergency with Colonel Carter, I would call you myself immediately."

"Carter already gave me the lecture, T. And thanks. Now, if you'll excuse me I have a Chief of Staff to apologize to." He clapped Teal'c on the back, and gave Daniel a real hug. A guy hug, but a hug nonetheless.

"See you around, Jack," Daniel said. "Just… hopefully no more unannounced pop-ins."

Jack smiled at them both and left. Daniel watched him go and turned to Teal'c. "Yeah. They definitely did."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, looking indifferent as he turned his attention back to the computer monitor.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

_Pentagon_

Jack stood in front of the USAF Chief of Staff and tried to explain taking off across the country and using the Asgard technology he 'officially' did _not _have hidden in his apartment immediately after drawing civilian attention to himself (apparently the 'helpful' doorman had made a few phone calls).

"It's not my fault, sir, you see, I'm not getting all of my memos…"


End file.
